


quartet

by antiquescissors



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Gen, Sleepovers, but not ALL angst, juuzou/tooru is implied but i'm not putting it in the relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 19:38:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14576181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antiquescissors/pseuds/antiquescissors
Summary: There were only three of them in the room that night, but they kept glancing at the spot where He might be. An uneasy silence fell over the trio. There were only three of them in the room that night, but they couldn't help but feel like a quartet.





	quartet

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first thing i've written that i actually like.

"Let's play Truth or Truth," Akira had said, painting her nails. She was the matriarch of their little crew, so Juuzou and Seidou followed suit. It was a dumb game that they played in meetings sometimes. They obviously couldn't do many dares in a meeting, so why not find out a little more about each other? 

Now, they were curled up, each lying sprawled on their air mattresses. They had already discovered a few things that they might not otherwise have known from the meetings. Juuzou and Akira found out that Seidou was a dog person ("I could tell," Juuzou said afterwards. Akira agreed. "He gave me a vibe."). Akira and Seidou found out that Juuzou could play the flute ("Are you...talented?" Seidou croaked out. Akira had replied, nonchalantly, "I thought it would be your instrument."). Juuzou and Seidou found out that Akira could sing with her mouth closed (Juuzou, who did not see it coming: "I just don't think of you as a singer!" Seidou, who strived to outdo her in every way: "Mmph-hmm-gwumph."). 

But things were different at night. An air had been cast over the party, an air that reeked of seriousness and secrecy. While the trio tried to maintain the playful atmosphere that they had experienced in the meetings, they could only find themselves delving into darker topics. 

"You know," Juuzou cooed quietly, "I haven't had a mom in a super long time. But I think I'm close to it."

Both Seidou and Akira refrained from telling him that he had never had a mother. They found that it would only made him irritable and sullen for the rest of their time together.

"Close to what?" Seidou whispered. 

"Having a mom again."

Seidou and Akira glanced at each other. They knew what he was talking about. Whenever Mrs. Shinohara visited, she was always happy to see him. It was a little funny; Akira had been so ready to protect Juuzou from any of her accusations only to find that the two had already met. Not only that, but she vehemently denied Juuzou any responsibility for her husband's death. She brought him food, and he would give her something in return, like a paperclip necklace, or a smudged cupcake. Sometimes, she would bring her child, who would hug Juuzou with a force that Akira had never seen before. They certainly looked like a family. It was stupid, but, looking at them, she couldn't help but feel...

"What about you, Akira?" Juuzou sang, abandoning the somber tone he had carried before. 

"Excuse me?"

"Any parental substitutes?"

"Oh," she said, quietly. Truthfully, it hadn't even occurred to her that she might try to replace either of her parents. "I don't think so, no."

"Was Amon ever like a parent to you?" Seidou asked. "I mean, back when..." 

She hid herself with her shoulders in a strange gesture that she had never, ever had to do before. It made her recoil to think of him as a parent, but it made her writhe inside to think that he might have thought of himself as her parent. He had known, hadn't he? Or was she not blunt about it? It was hard for her to navigate through social situations like the ones that they had experienced, but she thought--she was  _sure--_ that he knew.

"No," she snapped, colder than she meant it to come off. 

Silence rolled over them like dust. Like dust, it subsided. 

"Juuzou, Truth or Truth?" Akira finally questioned. 

"Hm. Truth!" 

"Nice choice," Seidou mumbled. 

"How do you feel about your prosthetic?"

Juuzou hummed, and he thought about that for a moment. It was metal, and it was hard. It was so cold that he had to sleep without it, 'cause he touched Tooru's feet with it, and Tooru would shriek. For a second, always, he would think,  _at least you've got feet to be cold._ It wasn't so much that he disliked it. The prosthetic itself was fine. It worked efficiently, and he kept knives in it. Sometimes (often) he would use the knife compartment for snacks. It wasn't bad; it wasn't even bad to look at, though he didn't really care about those things. If it grossed someone out, he would take it off and show them his stump. It wasn't that the prosthetic was bad. 

"I like it fine," he admitted easily. 

"Then why's it off?" Seidou interrogated with a smugly raised eyebrow. 

"Well. If it's off, I think I'm realer."

The other two glanced at each other with squinted eyes.

"Please explain," Akira cut in. 

"It's just like I'm saying: 'This is my leg!' If you think the leg is gross, then you can leave. If you don't, then stay. Sounds dumb, but that's kinda what I think a sleepover is all about." 

"Damn, Akira. We're showing each other our legs now." Seidou waggled his eyebrows at her. 

Akira knew that only the lowest of the low kicked someone else while they were down, as Seidou was. It was bestial, inhuman to attack prey that couldn't defend itself. So she kicked him, viciously, in the ribs. 

"Ow!" 

"When my pants slipped up my ankle as I kicked you--that's the most of my leg you'll see in this life."

They knew it was all jokes. Seidou wasn't really attracted to Akira. Now, the kick. The kick was real, but it wasn't done with the intention to injure or kill him or whatever, which they knew because Seidou was not dead nor injured. If Akira had meant to kill him, it would be a Juuzou & Akira sleepover, which, frankly, did not seem that bad to either party. In some ways, it was even preferable. 

"Seidou, Truth or Truth?" Juuzou asked.

"I'm thinking...Truth."

"Mm-kay. So why did you hate me?"

Seidou faltered. "Why did I  _hate_ you?"

"Yep. I just remember, you'd yell at me or something, and I'd think, what's up with that?" 

"Wh-Why did  _you_ hate  _me_?!"

"I didn't!" Juuzou cried defensively. 

"So that's the story," Seidou deadpanned, "I was rude and Juuzou was an angel." 

"Neither of you liked each other, but I think Seidou didn't like Juuzou first. And I think I know why. But I'll let Seidou tell us why, because, ultimately, I think it's his story to tell."

"That was deep."

"Okay, I'm starting, so you can shut up now!" Seidou snapped. "You're right--I didn't like Juuzou first, and that's because he was a freak. Okay? Not just him. You were a freak, Akira. You two are literally the strangest, most annoying people I have met in my entire life. But here's the wild part: people thought that the two of you were better investigators. Akira's becoming her great and powerful father, and all of a sudden Juuzou is becoming Arima. Now he is Arima. I'm just saying, for me, back then, it was a lot to handle. In my world, only great...normal...people did great things. I didn't hate you passionately or anything. You were just out of place. Bothered me."

Juuzou and Akira sat back and chewed on that for a while. Neither of them could really pinpoint how it made them feel. 

"Akira, Truth or Truth?"

"Truth."

"Okay," Seidou whispered, "I'm seriously going to regret this--especially since I just called you a freak--but if Amon wasn't a parent to you, what...was he?"

There were only three of them in the room that night, but they kept glancing at the spot where He might be. An uneasy silence fell over the trio. There were only three of them in the room that night, but they couldn't help but feel like a quartet.

"Everything."

Again, silence fell upon them like dust, only this time they felt no temptation to lift it. Juuzou relaxed considerably, sensing that the conversation was over, and laid his head in Akira's lap. If any other boy had done so, she would have their heads in her lap, and just their heads. Juuzou was different. If Seidou had laid his head in her lap, she would have been angry, because she knew that he'd had feelings for her at one point. But Juuzou had never been attracted to her, and never would be. When Juuzou did it, it was no less innocent than a kitten looking for a place to curl up. It made her relax, too, to have her position as the resident mother be solidified. 

Seidou, feeling left out, rested his head on Juuzou's leg. One dark eye, red as blood, glanced down at him. It felt like a final judgement. He pondered over whether Juuzou would kick him or let him stay. In the end, Juuzou whispered, "Okay." Seidou rested against Juuzou's leg for a while. It was only after he had begun to wonder about the cold temperature of the leg that he realized it was the prosthetic. 

The trio fell asleep like that. Curled into each other, like children. Or parental substitutes.

**Author's Note:**

> akira/amon is the last relationship listed in the tags b/c i feel like it's definitely the least important relationship in this story. i just love exploring the relationships between these three, especially the one between juuzou and akira. i think it showed a little that they were the most interesting to me out of the trio. the relationship between juuzou and seidou is also interesting to me, especially in :re. seidou and akira's relationship, i think, is well-defined enough in canon, but it still gets to me sometimes. i'm babbling now, but basically these three and their relationships are some of the best parts of tokyo ghoul to me.


End file.
